First Hunt 4-03

“So you grew up around all this stuff,” I whispered to Sean as the two of us picked our way around the lake. We were moving slowly and using the treeline as cover, hopefully avoiding the attention of the creatures inside the cabin in the distance. “Can I ask you something about how all this works?” While speaking, I pressed my finger into the slight depression in the staff where the small button was and held it. The black ends switched to a softly glowing blue as they began to charge up with kinetic energy.

The Hispanic boy turned his gaze away from Vulcan, who was busy sniffing ahead of us. His voice was equally quiet as he nodded to me. “Yeah, sure, what do you wanna know, Flickster?”

I waited another few seconds, scanning the shadows ahead of us before whispering again. “Let’s say someone graduates from this place, does their job for awhile, then decides they want to settle down. Is being a teacher the only way they can do that, or is there like, a retirement type plan or a way to stop?”

His response was to raise an eyebrow at me. “Jeeze, are we that bad to be around?” He teased. “Been here for a month and you’re already planning how you can retire and abandon us forever.”

Rolling my eyes, I shoved my fist against his shoulder. “It’s not like that. I’m just wondering how you guys deal with that kind of thing. I mean, there’s gotta be people who just want to settle down, right?”

“Right,” he agreed before shrugging. “And there’s two kinds that fit that deal. There’s the guys that want to forget about all of this, who want to be done with it completely. And there’s the ones that are still willing to fight if something comes to them, who’ll protect an area or whatever but don’t wanna go actively looking for trouble. My uncle’s one of those last ones. He settled down in Bogotá. That’s–”

“Capital of Colombia,” I replied easily. “See? Some of us paid attention in Freshman geography.”

“Must’ve had a cute teacher,” he shot back. “I can see it now, little fourteen-year old Flickster, sighing dreamily over the dreamboat professor while he meets her eager stare with a smoldering gaze.” He deepened his voice as though speaking as the hypothetical teacher. “’Ms. Chambers, if you remember nothing else from this class, I pray that you retain this simple fact. The capital of Colombia is Bogotá.’”

Feeling a slight flush cross my face, I shoved him. “Jerk. What about the other type you mentioned? The ones that don’t want to have anything to do with any of this. What exactly happens to them?”

Smirking at the shove, Sean nodded. “The other kind go through the process to be released from being a Heretic completely. They give everything up. All the power, all the weapons, even the ability to recognize Strangers. They surrender all of it and go back to being ordinary people. They run away.”

Before I could respond to that choice of words, or ask him anything else, we reached the edge of the treeline before the open yard that surrounded the monster-infested cabin. Crouching down there, the two of us watched as dark shapes continued to move past the curtained windows in the distance. By that point, we were close enough that I could hear noises from inside. The chamrosh were communicating with a series of trills and whistles. If I didn’t know better, I would have guessed that there was a flock of birds inside the cabin, except for the fact that the songs were way too deep to come from any avian species I’d ever heard of. They were bird whistles produced by canine lungs.

“Thanks,” I said mostly under my breath. “Really needed that distraction so I wouldn’t pee myself.”

Sean’s hand patted my shoulder briefly. “You’ll be fine. Just try not to get too distracted daydreaming about that cute geography teacher and his soulful gaze. We need your head in the game.”

“I do have this big stick,” I reminded him while giving my staff a shake in his direction. “And thanks to Avalon, I’ve gotten a lot better at using it. You probably shouldn’t give me any reason to think I should practice with it some more.” Then I activated the communication pin that I had attached to my shirt under the jacket, broadcasting to the rest of the group. “Team. Sean and I are in position.”

“Give us one minute,” Avalon’s reply came back a moment later. “We had a brief delay.”

Eyes focused on the cabin, I spoke again. “Team. Delay? Is everything all right?”

It was Columbus who answered. “We’re fine. Just ran into some deer and had to skirt around them so they wouldn’t spook. Figured that might hurt this whole sneak attack thing we’ve got going on.”

Sean and I continued to watch the cabin, listening to the too-deep bird noises while Avalon and Columbus maneuvered themselves into position. While we were waiting, I carefully extended the staff out of the treeline, touching the end of it against the ground while keeping my finger on the button. As I held the tip against the dirt, that faint blue energy bubble appeared before turning almost invisible.

I whispering to Sean. “Don’t let Vulcan run off and hit that thing when this goes down.”

He gave me an easy, charming smile in return. “No worries. When the shit hits the fan, my little buddy’s gonna be right here.” Rubbing the mechanical dog’s back, he asked, “Ain’t that right, pal?” Vulcan gave a soft woof of agreement, and Sean patted his head. “Damn straight.”

Finally, I saw the figures of our two teammates carefully glide through the bushes across the yard from us. They settled into position before Avalon reported that they were ready.

Columbus gave a brief wave our way, then turned his attention toward the cabin itself. I saw his hand move to his face to adjust his special goggles. Then his voice came through. “Okay, I’ve got their heat signatures now. There’s five of them all right. Two in the back near the door there, one up in some kind of loft area or something, one still up by the front window that Scout’s locked onto, and another one below the cabin. It looks like it’s in some kind of basement or cellar area.”

“Team. Any other life signs at all?” I asked. Yeah, we’d been told that there were no civilians here, but it was a good idea to make sure for ourselves instead of just expecting the adults to be perfect.

“Nope, just those five,” Columbus replied. “I can’t see any civilians, or the sixth monst—err, Stranger.”

That was worrying. I wondered where the last one was. According to Professor Kohaku, the last one was the primary target, which meant it was bigger, stronger, faster, and probably smarter than the others. And we still had no idea where or what it was. That was a bad way to start this thing, even if we did manage to take out these five. It still left the main threat both safe and aware of our presence.

From the silence, I guessed that Avalon was thinking along the same lines. I could barely make out her motionless form crouched in the bushes in the distance, head turned a little as she thought it through.

It felt like forever, but in truth, only about five seconds had passed before the other girl spoke through the comm. “We hit them anyway. Better to get rid of these five and then have one to focus on than risk it using them as a distraction or reinforcements. We put them down and whatever’s left is on its own.” After another moment, she continued laying out the specific plan. “Scout, as soon as you see a chance for a shot, take it. Everyone else, when the glass shatters, be ready to move. Porter and I cover this side of the cabin and the front door. Chambers and Gerardo cover that side and the back door.”

It was kind of funny. No one had asked Avalon to be the leader, but no one really questioned it either.

Deveron, on the other hand, hadn’t seemed interested in much of anything thus far. He’d stayed behind with the twins. Which I supposed was good if something came after them before we could get back there. On the other hand, I had my doubts that the jerk would be that much help if it came down to it.

One by one, we agreed with the plan. Sands, of course, spoke for both herself and her sister. I had yet to hear Scout say more than two or three words, save for the occasional whisper I managed to make out.

Then we waited, tense and ready, while the silent girl lined up her shot. The annoying, disconcertingly guttural bird songs from inside continued. It sounded like the creatures were arguing with each other, bitching back and forth across the cabin in their own language. Maybe they were looking for something? That was my best guess, though I had no idea what they could be searching the cabin for.

As ready as I thought I was, a soft yelp still escaped me as the window abruptly shattered under the impact of Scout’s bullet. There was a heavy thud from inside that was almost instantly followed up by the kind of scream that couldn’t be produced by human lungs. It was an awful wail, an evil sound that was quickly joined by more as each of the creatures took up the same cry. My teeth tried to grind reflexively under the horrible noise as it penetrated my brain and made it hard to think straight.

Avalon’s warning came over the comm, louder now that stealth wasn’t a concern. “Here they come!”

Sure enough, I saw one of the half-dog, half-bird figures lunge through the side window. It looked like a combination of a dalmatian and a raven, the last black spot on the neck rising up into the bird’s feathered head. With a horrible screech, eyes locked right on our position, it charged.

Sean was ready. His hand grasped the hidden handle near his mechanical canine’s rear, hauling the thing up while Vulcan’s body shifted and transformed. The head flipped around and locked into position to reveal the six barrels before Sean took a single step out of the bushes, putting himself right on the edge of the kinetic mines that I had laid. Smirking, he pulled the trigger. Those half dozen barrels began to spin up even as the chamrosh ran straight for us, screeching its bloodlust.

That cry was overtaken an instant later as Vulcan roared to life. I had no idea how fast the thing fired, but dozens of shots tore into the approaching creature within seconds. The sheer noise and power of the gun in full firing mode was terrifying to witness. The monster, whose appearance had been so terrifying seconds earlier, was knocked to the ground by the force of the gunfire. Chunks of flesh were torn from the thing while it howled and rolled, bullets ripping into it unrelentingly.

And yet the thing kept coming. With a defiant, furious scream, it launched itself forward through the hail of gunfire. Unfortunately for the monster, that leap put it right on my nearest invisible mine. The force of the concussive explosion blew one of the thing’s legs off while it was hurled backward, and Sean took advantage of the chance to lay waste to it some more, ensuring that it wouldn’t get up again.

Belatedly, another sound reminded me that I was supposed to be an active participant in this fight, not just an onlooker. My head snapped up and over just in time to see another of the chamrosh racing toward us, focused on Sean as the boy continued to lay waste to the first creature. This one looked like a really big mastiff mixed with the head of a particularly nasty-looking vulture.

“Okay, Flick,” I whispered to myself. “You can do this. You can do it. Now!” Raising my voice on the last word, I leapt forward and over the mines that I had laid. My staff came flipping around, the motion as reflexive as Avalon had promised it would be after the hours and hours of practice. As the big dog-bird lunged, I put myself in between it and Sean, lashing out with a blow that took the thing right in the side of its head. The force of the blow, aided by putting my body’s motion behind it, staggered the monster very briefly. It had been so focused on getting at the boy with the gun that it hadn’t even noticed me until my staff smacked right into its ugly face.

I expected to be afraid, and part of me was. But mostly I was hyper-focused on every little move that the creature made. There wasn’t enough time to focus on the fear and anxiety. The thing recovered quickly, snapping out with that nasty beak in an attempt to grab the end of the weapon that had hurt it.

Snapping the staff back out of its way, I pivoted around on my foot, snapping the weapon around as I turned so that the full force of my motion was transferred to the staff just in time to smack down onto the top of the chamrosh’s lunging head when my spin brought me back around to the front.

The blow knocked the monster down onto its forelegs a bit, and it made an ugly, whistling growl at me.

Honestly, the thought of what might happen if that monster tore into me was a very distant worry. Strangely, the worry that sprang to mind the most was what Avalon would say if she saw me do something wrong here and fuck up after all the work she’d put into helping me train. It was a weird, completely out of place thought considering the danger of the situation. I was in a fight, possibly for my life, and my brain was worried about impressing my roommate.

Shaking that off, I took a quick step back before faking a quick swing with the left end of my staff. The monster fell for the feint, snapping its beak that way even as I reversed course, lashing out with the other end while holding the trigger to charge up the kinetic force to get it ready for the next blow.

By that point, the monster was practically ignoring the strikes against it. Beyond its initial surprise, the simple fact was that my strength wasn’t enough to do much damage to the same kind of thing that could even somewhat stand up to the kind of punishment that Vulcan was unleashing onto it. I had to do something more impressive if I was going to stop this thing.

With that in mind, I waggled the staff out to one side, teasing the monster shamelessly. “Here, Fido. Here you go, boy. You want the stick, you want the stick? Come get it, boy. Come get it!”

The creature took the bait, lunging at the offered weapon. As it moved, I snapped my staff out of its way before dropping into a roll that moved me out of its way and around to its backside. Once there, I whistled once, then gave a sharp thrust forward with the weapon.

Spinning around almost blindingly quickly, the chamrosh snapped its beak out, catching hold of the end of my staff before holding tightly with a menacing growl.

In response, I smiled. “Now that,” I announced to the thing. “That you shouldn’t have done.” Then, before it could react, I triggered the energy that I’d been saving up in the staff.

The resulting blast, focused down into the monster since it had taken the end of the staff into its beak, blew through its internal organs. The concussive force was centered and directed into the chamrosh, and its body was thrown backwards a dozen feet before crashing to the ground. It didn’t move again.

Immediately, I felt that same embarrassingly good feeling sweep over me that had come when I had killed the peridles. Staggering briefly, I barely contained the murmur of pleasure while shivering. God, was absorbing the power of Strangers always going to feel that good? And speaking of absorbing power, what had I just taken?

Before I could figure that much out, Sean’s voice cried out a warning, “Flick, move!”

Two weeks ago, my reflex would have been to look that way to see what was going on. After the time I’d spent learning from both Avalon and Professor Katarin however, I threw myself as far to the side as possible, hurtling into a roll along the dirt.

It almost wasn’t enough. Something… massive had come right up behind me, lunging down to the spot where I had been crouching. I felt fur and muscle as a leg the size of a tree trunk smacked into me. Pain erupted down my side and I was knocked sprawling to the dirt.

With a yelp, I rolled over to stare up at the thing that had nearly run me down. I looked up… and up… and up, until my eyes finally found the new monster’s head, towering high above me.

It was a wolf. But not just any wolf. This thing was so pants-wettingly enormous that I could have stood upright in its open mouth. It was larger than the cabin the other monsters had been hiding in.

“Guys…” I managed to whimper from my prone position while the monster salivated above me.

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17 comments

But seriously, good chapter, good action, nice bit of exposition at the beginning, eyebrows raised at Sean’s “run away” line, learned the capital of Columbia, obligatory “I want that gun!” comment I forgot to hand out last chapter, Avalon makes a natural leader, etc.

I suspect Flick gained enhanced senses from killing that thing. Total guess.

Flick and Sean are actually in good position to fight the Werewolf(tentative name?) from where they’re standing. They’re near a forest, which means they can duck and weave in a minefield of trees, while the Werewolf is forced to bludgeon through them(probably straight into mines). Plus, Sean’s gatling gun is great for laying down suppressive fire and has the firepower to deal hurt to a monster like that. Just imagine having to wade through a forest filled with concussive surprises while taking a stream of large-calibre armor piercing bullets to the face.

Not to mention, Vulcan in dog form can act as a distraction if Flick and Sean need to cheese it. The way I see it, the secondary targets were pretty weak(Flick and Sean dispatched theirs easily), so the others should be finished cleaning up soon. All they have to do is trap the Werewolf in the forest and delay it until the cavalry can arrive. I predict an epic scene with Avalon going claw to claw with the Werewolf.

Random question unrelated to the events of this chapter, though – Heretics gain the powers of the Strangers they kill. Does this mean that if Heretics kill undead, they could potentially gain the ability to become undead themselves instead of dying?

And if so, would their healing factor from the cockroach critters allow them to restore their body to the point where they stop being undead and start being alive?

Their monster drain has tons of interesting potential, I have to say. It’s really quite impressive?

“Random question unrelated to the events of this chapter, though – Heretics gain the powers of the Strangers they kill. Does this mean that if Heretics kill undead, they could potentially gain the ability to become undead themselves instead of dying?”

Oh, don’t worry, I’ll explain a bit more about how the power-gain thing works, the limitations/categories/etc of it as we go along. I just don’t want to throw too much exposition at the wall too quickly. The different types of Heretics, the different kinds of powers/abilities/strengths that can be gained from them and how the whole diminishing return thing works (where killing the first of a particular enemy type will grant that category of power like regeneration, but each subsequent kill of the same creature type doesn’t double that power level, just adds a little bit to the original level) will get detailed fully as we go along. 🙂

As for the undead thing, it’s more likely that they would gain some other ability inherent to that particular creature, like a damage resistance, ability to sense the living, etc. In certain cases such as zombies, they would gain nothing at all. Remember when Flick listed the three types of zombies? 1: Dead body brought back to life post-death by magic or some Stranger’s ability to raise the dead. 2: bodies prepared ahead of time by similar magic or Stranger abilities, 3: bodies inhabited by Revenants. The first two would give no ability at all if they were killed, because the raised body itself is not the Stranger. It’s no different than breaking someone’s weapon or tool. And in the last case, the Revenant zombie is impossible to kill while in the body, so they’d have to wait until it ran out of its short lifespan and then kill the Revenant itself.

“Smirking at the shove, Sean nodded. “The other kind go through the process to be released from being a Heretic completely. They give everything up. All the power, all the weapons, even the ability to recognize Strangers. They surrender all of it and go back to being ordinary people. They run away.””
Me: I get the feeling that the people who choose this option aren’t viewed very well by at least some parts of the Heretic community.

“And yet the thing kept coming. With a defiant, furious scream, it launched itself forward through the hail of gunfire. Unfortunately for the monster, that leap put it right on my nearest invisible mine. The force of the concussive explosion blew one of the thing’s legs off while it was hurled backward, and Sean took advantage of the chance to lay waste to it some more, ensuring that it wouldn’t get up again.”
Me: Ah, I’m reminded of teamwork in World of Warships…

“Spinning around almost blindingly quickly, the chamrosh snapped its beak out, catching hold of the end of my staff before holding tightly with a menacing growl.

In response, I smiled. “Now that,” I announced to the thing. “That you shouldn’t have done.” Then, before it could react, I triggered the energy that I’d been saving up in the staff.

The resulting blast, focused down into the monster since it had taken the end of the staff into its beak, blew through its internal organs. The concussive force was centered and directed into the chamrosh, and its body was thrown backwards a dozen feet before crashing to the ground. It didn’t move again.”
Me: Nicely done on Flick’s part. The Stranger made a large mistake in holding on to her weapon.

“This thing was so pants-wettingly enormous that I could have stood upright in its open mouth. It was larger than the cabin the other monsters had been hiding in.”
Me: That’s…quite the large Stranger, eh? Although I do wonder if her fear is skewing her perceptions.

Hopefully one of her teammates can draw it away while she regathers her wits.

Hmm, so Flick’s thinking of some other possibilities concerning her mother, wondering if she voluntarily walked away from the Heretic life, and learned that it can happen in a couple ways- some people settle down in the mundane world but choose to retain their abilities & try to deal with any Strangers who wander by, while others decide to leave it completely and have themselves voluntarily Banished, though it seems that there’s a certain degree of contempt towards those who choose that second option. However, from the hints of political complications & disagreements concerning both Flick & Joselyn from earlier, somehow I doubt that Joselyn’s separation from the Heretics was exactly a willing one.

And looks like Avalon just might be one of those natural take charge leader personalities.

The chamroshes seem like they’d be reasonably easy for student Heretics to fight, and Avalon’s lessons seem to really be taking hold in Flick. However, she might want to spend some more time in the gym (or else off a Stranger that gives strength boosts), as her normal blows just seemed to piss the one she was fighting off, & she needed to use a kinetic energy boost charge & a few tricks to take it out.

And then Flick found the primary target the hard way- looks like this one’s going to be a lot harder….

“However, from the hints of political complications & disagreements concerning both Flick & Joselyn from earlier, somehow I doubt that Joselyn’s separation from the Heretics was exactly a willing one.”

It does seem doubtful, doesn’t it?

” However, she might want to spend some more time in the gym (or else off a Stranger that gives strength boosts), as her normal blows just seemed to piss the one she was fighting off, & she needed to use a kinetic energy boost charge & a few tricks to take it out.”

Yeah, she definitely needs to get a bit stronger. That’ll come with time.

““So you grew up around all this stuff,” I whispered to Sean as the two of us picked our way around the lake.”
Umm, Flick, use the magical walky-talky lapel-pin. No need to whisper. You /were told/ that no one else could hear any message you sent with them. If someone /standing right next to you couldn’t hear what you were saying I don’t think someone in the distance would.
I guess it just didn’t click for her. Or Sean for that matter, or he would have responded via said magical walky-talky lapel-pin.

“It was kind of funny. No one had asked Avalon to be the leader, but no one really questioned it either.”
A real leader is never chosen, they are the ones that see that people need to be led and take up the role of leadership of their own accord. A real leader never asks for power, but is given power by those they lead, those that trust in the leader’s choices and follow, not always without question but without hesitation.
Avalon makes a good leader, she’s the sort of person that could make the tough calls when it came down to it and still sleep at night and make another hard choice later. She’s no Jake (does /anyone/ get that reference?) but she’s good for the role in a lot of way that he wasn’t, yet is worse for the role in ways that he was good for it.
Flick isn’t really leader material, she’s still too new at this. However I think she’ll make a good Second. She’s not going to be afraid to question Avalon is she doesn’t agree with a decision and she’s in a position where Avalon would /actually consider her objection/. I think she’d probably listen to one of the guys or the sisters but coming from Flick any objection would have a bit more “weight” to it.
Neither of the guys strike me as the leader type, Scout is right out and I don’t think Sands could cut it either. Columbus could probably do a good job if you he was ever called out directly to be leader but I don’t think he’d ever pick it up without being told to do so. I’m not sure about Sean, I don’t have as good a feel for him as I do the others, but I don’t think he’d take to being a leader too well, he’d probably crumple under the pressure, or, at least be bent by it.
Maybe when she gets more experience Flick could also be a leader, but I think she’d be more happy always being the Second, never the real leader. She doesn’t need the glory, she just wants the job to be done right. Credit where it is due of course, but she just wants the truth to be known and wrongs to be righted, if she has to do it, she will, but if someone else does it that’s great too. At least that’s how I read her.

“Avalon’s warning came over the comm, louder now that stealth wasn’t a concern. “Here they come!””
Stealth was never a concern with the voice levels! At least if you are using on of the magical walky-talky lapel-pins. I’m just going to call them WTLPs from now on.

Hum, I’m curious, is there a range limit on the ability absorption? Did Scout pick up something new from her kill or do you have to be closer?
Also, what happens if two Heretics stab something at the same time, both of them fetal wounds. Do they split the power? Do they both get full version of if? Or does only one get the power, the one who’s blade killed the thing ‘first’?
So many questions on this “you kill you you gain it’s power” thing. eagerly awaiting the answers you said you’d give us in your comment above.

“Immediately, I felt that same embarrassingly good feeling sweep over me that had come when I had killed the peridles. Staggering briefly, I barely contained the murmur of pleasure while shivering.”
Being near climax in the middle of a fight is not a good thing. Well, not /normally/ a good thing. You never know, there could be a Stranger out there weak to that sort of thing!
There’s all sorts of just plain /odd/ weakness on some ‘mythological’ beasties it wouldn’t surprise me.
Though, that absorption pleasure rush IS a good indicator that your target is Door-Nail Dead and not just faking it.

So, I was looking at the tags; why does Flick have both “Felicity Chambers” and “Flick” while the twins only have their nick-names?

“Umm, Flick, use the magical walky-talky lapel-pin. No need to whisper. You /were told/ that no one else could hear any message you sent with them. If someone /standing right next to you couldn’t hear what you were saying I don’t think someone in the distance would.”

😀 I know, right? It’s almost like she’s not accustomed to this kind of thing.

” She’s no Jake (does /anyone/ get that reference?)”

I’ve written a lot of Animorphs fanfiction, so yes. 😉

“Stealth was never a concern with the voice levels! At least if you are using on of the magical walky-talky lapel-pins. I’m just going to call them WTLPs from now on.”

LOL, don’t worry, it’ll sink in eventually.

“Hum, I’m curious, is there a range limit on the ability absorption? Did Scout pick up something new from her kill or do you have to be closer?”

It mostly has to do with the specific situation and how responsible you were for the death. Scout would get it because she directly killed the thing.

“Being near climax in the middle of a fight is not a good thing. Well, not /normally/ a good thing. You never know, there could be a Stranger out there weak to that sort of thing!”

*snickers* You never know.

“So, I was looking at the tags; why does Flick have both “Felicity Chambers” and “Flick” while the twins only have their nick-names?”

Mostly because I’m weird. A couple characters fluctuate between first name or both first and last, I think. Need to go through all the tags and standardize it.

Their strategy was really stupid. They engaged five strangers while a unknown, powerful stranger with a unknown location was in the area. It should be obvious that this one would be attracted by the sound of battle and would engage them while they are busy with the other ones. This could kill you if it wasn’t a test situation.

That’s why they left behind two of their number, including one with a long range sniper rifle that could watch over the whole field and hit anywhere. 😉 The plan WAS to lure it out into the open. They just didn’t expect it to be quite as absurdly powerful as it was, because it shouldn’t have been.

“I was in a fight, possibly for my life, and my brain was worried about impressing my roommate.”
Now who does this remind me of?

Good tactics by Flick. Even if it’s tough on the outside, the insides might not be.

I was meaning to ask, does the glow show up to Strangers? Because that would destroy any attempt at stealth killing more than one unless they are very far apart.
Also, I’m 99% sure we are going to see a radical Heretic that gets off on killing Strangers and slaughters innocent/peaceful ones for entertainment or satisfaction.